Just a brief update to let you know that if you selected a GardenWorks perk, it will be mailed the week of March 18. If you selected a logo t-shirt, we will email you to ask your preference for size.
Thank you again for being a founding supporter!
-The GardenWorks Team
Good evening, GardenWorks Founding Supporters!
Well, we did it! With your help, we were able to SURPASS our fundraising goal. That means we will be abe to build ten new gardens, refresh our four gardens from last year, create some educational materials, and participate in a few outreach events (see us at Glen Ellyn’s Earth Day event in April, and Gardenology in Geneva in May). It’s an incredible feeling to be part of this project, and to be associated with all of you, who are passionate about releiving hunger in our community.
I assure you that your funds are in good hands. I am honored to be working with two AMAZING women who have a strong desire to propel this project forward. Between the three of us, we have the education and experience to not only manage the project for 2013, but to take GardenWorks to the next level – 501c3 nonprofit status. Our backgrounds, along with the confidence you’ve placed in us, put us in a great position to expand the project and help even more families grow their own food.
We will be busy in the next few weeks mailing your GardenWorks perks, working with our partner organizations to identify our garden recipients, and recruiting volunteers. We will hold a volunteer kick-off meeting in April, so keep an eye out for more information in your inbox for that and other GardenWorks news.
And once again, a very sincere thank you. We could not do this work without your contribution. Thank you.
The GardenWorks Team
How thrilling, humbling, and satisfying it was to log in this evening and see that we have met our goal for the season with 17 days left of fundraising available. The GardenWorks team is so incredibly thankful for all of your donations and your help spreading the word. We are so happy to be able to provide 10 new families with gardens this year, and to refresh the 4 from last year. We will also be able to get the ball rolling on obtaining 501c3 status, and do some marketing of the program.
We still have time to raise more funds to take on a few extra projects. If we can raise $600 more, we will be able to build two extra gardens, attend at least one outreach event this summer to sell t-shirts to begin raising money for 2014, and provide instructional books for our 10 families in both English and Spanish to supplement our garden coaching efforts.
Thank you again for all you have done to make this campaign a success. Look for your perks, if you selected any, to arrive by mail in March. And please continue to spread the word about GardenWorks to anyone in your circle of influence who you think might wish to contribute or volunteer.
Thank you. Thank you!
Tina and Rosemarie
Wow! Five days into this campaign, and we are over 30% to our goal! Thank you to all of the funders.
We are currently tweaking our application process, then we will roll that out to our partners, Glen Ellyn Food Pantry, Bridge Communities, and People’s Resource Center. We believe that the success of this program really lies in finding families who both NEED the food a vegetabe garden will supply, but also WANT to learn to grow it themselves.
After we have collected the applications, we will determine how many we can accept into the program and build gardens for. This is where you come in. If we meet our goal of $2000, we can supply our 10 new families and four families from last year with gardens. If we raise more than that, then we can help even more families grow.
Thank you to those who have already donated, and to those who plan to. And please pass a link on to those in your network who might want to support us.
Best regards,
The GardenWorks Team